Contents

Novel
biography

Although the film and novel are similar in plot, the
backgrounds for Julius No carry certain differences. An individual
of Chinese-German cultural heritage, the
novel's Dr. No was born in Peking to a German Methodistmissionary and a Chinese
girl, but was raised by his aunt. When older, he went to Shanghai, where he became
involved with the Tongs, a Chinese crime syndicate. Later he
was smuggled to the United States and settled in New York City,
where he became a clerk and eventually Treasurer for a Tong in
America, called the "Hip-Sings".

In the late 1920s, a mob war broke out in New York, forcing the
police to crack down on them. No stole a million dollars in gold from the Tongs and disappeared.
But the Tongs tracked him down and tortured him to find the location of the gold.
When No did not tell them, the Tongs cut off his hands, shot him
through the left side of the chest and left him for dead. No
survived, due to a condition called dextrocardia, in which his heart was on
the right side of the body.

No spent a long time in hospital, then enrolled in medical
school in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. It is unclear if he completed his studies, but he
adopted the title of Doctor and changed his name (his birth name is
unknown) to Julius No, symbolic of his rejection of his father,
whose given name was Julius. As in the film, No fitted himself with
metal manual prostheses, but the book describes them as
simple pincers (apparently similar to those of
Tee-Hee in Live and Let Die), and
judging by the lack of descriptive detail, they presumably lack the
articulation of human hands.

With the million dollars from the Tong, he purchased rare stamps
in order to preserve his money against inflation; he later
purchased the island of Crab Key, off the coast of Jamaica, where he re-started a
defunct guano business as a
cover for his proposed criminal operations. He employs Jamaican
and Cuban labourers on good
wages for the guano works, brutally supervised by Jamaican
"Chigroes" (a portmanteau of 'Chinese' + 'Negroes',
referring to their mixed ancestry). No one who comes to the island
is allowed to leave.

No, with aid from the Soviets, sabotaged the nearby tests of American missiles
by jamming their signals and
making them land and explode on a different target than that
planned. This forced the Americans to spend time and money
redesigning their missiles. He also recovered missiles from the
ocean and turned them over to the Russians.

Bond did not actually learn of No's devious plot until he and Quarrel--with Honeychile Rider, who would trespass to
find exclusive shells--had infiltrated Crab Key and been captured.
Bond eventually kills Dr.No by dumping a huge mound of guano on top
of the villain, suffocating him and putting a stop to his
operation.

Henchmen
in the Novel

Miss Taro

Other various "Chigroes", including three who pose as blind
men

Film
biography

Dr. No is a brilliant scientist with an implied Napoleon
complex (see mad
scientist), a self-described "unwanted child of a Germanmissionary and a Chinese girl of a good family". He later
"became treasurer of the most powerful criminal society in China";
in this case, the Tongs. He then "escaped to America with
$10,000,000" of Tong gold bullion. He specialized in radiation, which cost him
both of his hands; his hands were replaced with crude bionic metal
ones. No's hands have great strength (he can crush a metal figurine
with them), but are seriously lacking in manual dexterity. This
property contributes to his demise.

He offered his skills and expertise to the Americans and
Soviets, but was rejected. To get revenge, No joined the criminal organization SPECTRE and relocated to his
island in Crab Key, Jamaica.

When Bond is sent to investigate the murder of two British
agents and any possible connection with recent rocket disasters, No
orders several attempts on his life. He is particularly displeased
with henchman Professor Dent's failure. He gives Dent a
venomous spider.

No captures Bond and Honey Ryder when they trespass on his
island. During dinner, he offers Bond a position in his
organization, but Bond refuses. Bond escapes and sabotages No's pool-type
nuclear reactor. The two men fight while everyone else flees
the imminent explosion. They both fall onto a small platform that
slowly descends into the boiling coolant of the overheating
reactor. Bond manages to climb out, but No cannot get a grip on the
metal framework due to his metal hands and is boiled to death.

In Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold
Newton Universe (Win Scott Eckert, ed., MonkeyBrain
Books, 2005), author Eckert contributes "Who's Going to Take
Over the World When I'm Gone?" wherein he posits that No's mother
was an agent of Fu
Manchu named Madame de Medici, who was in turn the daughter of
Fo-Hi, from
Sax Rohmer's novel
The Golden Scorpion. Likewise in The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, No is stated as being
a distant relative of Fu Manchu. Later in the book, it is revealed
that the mission of James Bond to stop Dr. No was a fraud, an alibi
for Bond to kill a British leader for the Americans. "There was No
Doctor."